Recently I was reviewing the State of the Creator Economy report put together by the team at Convertkit, and one stat caught my eye.
In the report, it was revealed that 61% of all respondents experienced burnout in the previous 12 months. And 1 in 10 of those respondents said they felt burnt out the entire year.
I knew that burnout was a big problem in our industry (I talk about it A LOT), but I didn’t realize it was that bad!
Breaking it down a little more, the participants said the two biggest causes of burnout were the pressure to post content everywhere, and content fatigue.
Based on this, I have two simple suggestions that will reduce your chances of suffering from severe burnout:
- Pick one or two platforms and stick with them. You don’t need to be everywhere; in fact I would argue it’s impossible to effectively show up on every platform unless you have a team of employees to help. Pick the platform where your audience is spending the most time and put your efforts there.
- Create a posting schedule that works for your lifestyle. The pressure to post every day, or even multiple times a day, is what leads to content fatigue. You don’t need to post every day. If you have a day job or kids to take care of, you already know your time is limited. Reduce your schedule to 3 or 4 posts per week and try to batch create your content whenever you have time.
Some additional burnout-busting ideas from the Convertkit survey: Getting outside, moving your body, journaling, and taking dedicated breaks.
And if you want to learn more about the psychology of burnout, I highly recommend listening to this episode of Creator Science where Jay Clouse interviews Dr. K of Health Gamer.
Whatever works for you, be sure to make a plan for future burnout episodes before they happen, so you’ll be ready!